Remembering the Holocaust and a Dying Man

For those who survived the Jewish death camps and the Holocaust, 60 years no doubt seems like a lifetime ago...and only yesterday. The 60th anniversary of the liberation of Jews from Auschwitz and other concentration camps captures bloggers' attention today. BlogPulse's bursty people include 92-year-old Anatoly Shapiro, one of the liberators, and Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

In the same breath comes this disquieting finding about historical knowledge of Auschwitz. Isn't the value of knowing history the determination not to repeat it -- or let it repeat itself elsewhere? Such as at Guantanamo?

A new name appears today among BlogPulse bursty people: Ivan Noble, a BBC reporter whose diaries of his personal fight against a brain tumor. His last installment was filed this week as he focuses his attention on the final stages of the disease.

Also getting some attention is State Sen. Fran Shurden, who obviously cares deeply about the pressing issues in today's word. He's proposing legislation to allow cockfighting to resume in Oklahoma (it was banned in 2002) so long as the chickens wear tiny little boxing gloves instead of razors. (Did anyone ask the chickens?)

Speaking of protection, newly installed Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is saving children, apparently, from Vermont mothers. She's asked PBS to pull an episode of "Postcards from Buster" because it featured two lesbian moms from Vermont. One blogger sums up the opinions of a few. (Just stop for a moment and think what this "No Child Left Behind" Administration would have done to Tom & Jerry? Sylverster and Tweety? Popeye downing the contents of that dangerous spinach can with a razor-sharp lid?)

Random catches: Is blogging too much of a good thing, asks Jack Shafer in Slate? Have you noticed that "pundit payola" has now entered the lexicon, thanks to conservative columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher, paid as outside consultants via public relations contracts (in Armstrong's case) or by the Department of Health and Human Services (in Gallagher's case) to study/promote specific agendas supportive of the Bush Administration's policies (education and marriage, respectively).

And happy birthday wishes are in order for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who would have turned 249 this year.

BLOGPULS TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Don't believe the late Johnny Carson was the king of late-night TV?